Making a Way in the Wilderness

I started the new blood thinner 3 weeks ago. Within the last week, I noticed that I was losing copious amounts of hair. It is distressing to see a huge pile of hair come out after showering and combing my hair. I have extremely thick hair, so much so that hair stylists occasionally thin it. It probably looks normal to everyone else, but I feel like I've probably lost at least 10% of my hair--much more than when I've gotten it thinned. 😭 It turns out hair loss is a common side effect of some blood thinners. I didn't have this problem with Lovenox or Eliquis, so I had no idea to be on the lookout for it. After consulting with my hematologist, I am back on two shots a day of Lovenox. He thought it was too risky to try Eliquis again (I took this pill last year, and a month later I was back in the hospital with recurring blood clots).  It is very disappointing to go back on Lovenox, but I can handle the 2 shots a day. I'm more distressed about how much longer I'm going ...

It was refreshing to approach my quarterly oncology appointment with no anxiety about my CT scan results. On Monday, my pulmonologist confirmed that my pulmonary function test results showed huge improvement. He said it's rare to see someone improve so much. For once, I'm an outlier in a good way!  At my oncology appointment in Pittsburgh, Dr. Villaruz said my CT scan looked great. This is a relative term because there's still a lot going on with my lungs...but it was very reassuring to hear her say this. She thinks there's been some improvement since May and about the same compared to August. Functionally, I'm doing much better. I only use my portable while biking or lifting, and I'm going to start using my pulse oximeter to see if I even need it in those instances. (Although, exercise is on hiatus because I pulled a muscle last week and can't do anything that activates my glute. Aaaargh.) People on Tagrisso develop resistance at a median of 18 months, mean...